I have described what "Youth Yathra" is in my previous blog. This is about first Youth Yathra named "Yarl Yathra 2016".
It was unfortunate that I could
not write a blog for the month of September. It was mainly due to the physical weakness
in my right hand which was identified as Tennis Elbow (inflammation of the
tendons of the elbow (epicondylitis) caused by overuse of the muscles of the
forearm) Well…I am still having the issue but how can I stay without overusing
the right arm :)
I decided to write about the Yarl
Yathra before its too late as it was our
first Yathra and the 3rd Yathra for this year is happening this week. So I am well behind
the schedule.
Yarl Yathra was held on 5th,
6th of August 2016 in Jaffna city in the Northern province with the participation of 47 youth. 25 of them
went with us from Colombo and the rest were trained youth from Jaffna. They were
trained as Green Leaders who can be ambassadors for combatting climate change
and think about sustainability. Though we can train in many numbers we never believe
that they all will come up to the level we expect but our intention is at least
some of them will be there. The initial name list from Jaffna participants was
over 55 and we had to stop them applying for the training. But it was
fluctuating and some days we got only 12 trainees and we had to try different
ways to bring them back. The main challenge was the language barrier. Most of
them were not speaking English so the bridging language was not useful at all.
We had to rely on the coordinator of American corner,Sinthuka who went abroad
for studies , was working for a NGO. She was the official translator throughout
the whole programme. None of others could communicate in English effectively
but we used body language a lot and we were successful up to a certain stage in
day to day communication but not in
teaching or training component. Then everything was translated from Tamil to
English and vis a versa which resulted in huge communication gaps most of the
time. Anyway, we manage to train 22 youth from Jaffna though our target was 40.
The first day early morning 25
youth from Colombo, who were members of past yathras (Kelani Nadee Yathra,
Paapedi, Kolamba Yathra) arrived in Jaffna by night mail train. It was very nice
to meet to some of them even after 5 years since our first yathra along the
river who are still active in the environmental conservation field. We all had
traditional Jaffna/Hindu breakfast at a local restaurant. After that youth from
South went to see Jaffna city as for many of them it was the first visit to
Jaffna. Remember most of these youth are below 30 years old so obviously could
not visit Jaffna due to the 30 years conflict we had in the past. So it was a great opportunity for them. The
official Yarl Yathra started at 2pm at American Corner in Jaffna where Jaffna
youth were waiting to welcome all of us from South and South Yathrees were
waiting to see their first ever (for most of them) Jaffna friends.
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| Southern Yathrees meet Northern Yathrees |
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| Arrival of information officer Mr. Joshua Shen |
The information officer from US Embassy Mr. Joshua Shen and Ms. Sharmini Sinnaiha also came as invited guests. After an ice breaking session, team was divided into 5 groups and went for different
directions to collect polythene along streets. Within one hour all teams
collected so many bags of polythene and then they sorted them out for
recycling. Only plastic bags with dirt were selected and washed and hang them
for drying.
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| off to collect polythene from garbage dumps |
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| Sorting out polythene |
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| Gayan - a yathree from Paapedi 2013 shows washed polythene |
The second day morning all got
together to cook Pongal (the traditional rice with milk, mung beans and sugar).
After eating pongal for breakfast all cleaned rest of polythene. Again half of
the team went to Jaffna city for hanging notice board with messages of
protecting trees and their importance.
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| Protecting trees.... |
Rest of the team stayed at American
corner and got ready for public exhibition. After lunch all got together
conducted public exhibition where I saw some emerging leaders.
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| Part of the public who came to see the exhibition |
It was very
satisfying to see around 10 youngsters were taking the leadership roles and
following instructions of the training using training skills. After lunch they all
got into their teams again. Empty plastic bottles were given to all teams and
were asked to make their own eco brick using the washed and dried polythene
they collected on the previous day. It was very nice to see
Tamil/Sinhala/Hindu/Buddhists/Muslims/Christians all of them making eco bricks
together. These eco bricks will be used to make a garden bench at American
corner.
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| All yathrees from South and North making Eco Bricks |
Then it was the time for award ceremony.
Joshua Shen and Sharmini joined with us
again after their meetings and Sinthuka, Newton, Priyangi , Sharuka and few
others conducted the award ceremony showing their leadership skills.
It was the end of Yarl Yathra and
by 6 pm the team from south rushed back to their accommodation packed and got
into the bus provide by Sri Lanka Army. The youth from South were ready for
their next event to complete the Nature exploration of Jaffna Peninsula on
bikes. Only Newton from Yarl Yathrees join with us for the second part and all
of us were transferred into the Army camp at Kankasanthurei which is one of the
Northern tips of Sri Lanka.
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| Dhanushka, Chaturanga, Newton, Gayani with 2 new yathrees |
Next day we rode from Kankasanthurei (KKS) to Point
Pedro (PP) was a life time experience as it was hot sun and over 4 hours riding
push bikes with the people even who could not ride a bike (thanks to past
Yathrees who were so nice to ride the bike with a friend on the back of the
bike). Therefore we did not leave any youth behind and all got the same
experience.
Sri Lanka Army they provided us with food, drinks and even escorted
us to show us the route. The morning snack was ready at another Army Camp in Velvetithurei, who welcome
us very warmly and admired our effort in training Green leaders. After another
2 hours we were on the Northern tip of Sri Lanka – Point Pedro. That was very
exciting as we have never been there in our entire lives.
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| Point Pedro (says now where you are) on the Map of Sro Lanka |
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| Whole team who participated in bicycle journey at Point Pedro |
The lunch was ready
by 1pm at the PPD Army Camp and wow…it was so nice to have live music and fresh
juice when we arrived there. The next challenge was riding back to KKS to catch
the night train back to Colombo. All of us were so exhausted and no energy to
ride back. Million time thanks to Col. Herath of Point Pedro Army Camp, just
one request the bus was there for all of us to go back. Wow what a relief…… It
was just fantastic communication by the time when we came back to KKS all arrangements
were ready for us to take a sea bath, even the dinner packets. Youth enjoyed
the sea and got dressed, collected their dinner packets and jumped into the
train just on time. Major Lakmal and
Col. Mayasinghe were there to say Good
Bye to them and I had to stay one more day to conduct an awareness session for
Sri Lanka Army Camp Palali as a way of thanking them for the great help they
offered to us.
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| Kanchana delivering a lecture at Army camp and part of the crowd |
I got up really happy next day
morning at KKS for few reasons, one was obviously Yarla Yathra was over which
means 10 months of our commitment for Jaffna youth came into an end. Its up to
them if they want to continue the mission to protect their environment. We gave
the knowledge and training and if they want to continue then we will be still
there for them. The other reason was I just got up in Northern Sri Lanka safely
which was a dream for us 7 years before. No bombs, no shelling, but just the peace….Now
we enjoy the peace and we all are sharing everything together. What a
blessing!!! Thanks to all who sacrificed their lives for this peace. Some of the youth
who were branded as terrorists are with us working together to protect Mother
Nature. Our wonderful Yathree, Islayan Newton who joined with us in 2011 as a
LTTE ex-combatant actively working with us now and has become a Green Leader. I
teach environment in Northern Sri Lanka which was a dream for me 7 years ago. What
else I want!!!!!
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| My favorite picture - spirit of Yathra - Newton (Tamil) Gayan (Sinhala Buddhist) Nifras (Muslim) but there is no difference in that smile.... |
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